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LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATION REQUEST INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPELLATE COURTS AND JUDICIAL BRANCH AGENCIES

LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD ID: 3061 JUNE 2016 1


2 JUNE 2016 LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD ID: 3061 — LAR INSTRUCTIONS FOR JUDICIARY


Appellate courts and judicial branch agencies must refer to the 2018–19 Legislative Appropriation Request (LAR) Detailed Instructions (June 2016) for general budget instructions and the LAR Submission Schedule (June 2016) for due dates, both of which are available on the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) website at www.lbb.state.tx.us/AgenciesPortal.aspx → Instructions → Legislative Appropriations Request.

BASELINE REQUEST AND EXCEPTIONAL ITEMS Agencies should limit their General Revenue Funds and General Revenue–Dedicated Funds baseline appropriations requests to the amounts approved by the LBB and the Office of the Governor, Budget Division. A policy letter regarding baseline levels is available on the LBB website at www.lbb.state.tx.us/AgenciesPortal.aspx → Instructions → Legislative Appropriations Request.

WHAT’S NEW

Centralized Accounting and Payroll/Personnel System (CAPPS) – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Project. All CAPPS expenses in fiscal years 2016 to 2019 should be identified in capital budget submissions as Capital Project Category Code 8000 CAPPS Statewide ERP System. Affected agencies should include capital expenses and noncapital informational expenses, such as internal staff costs. Further information is included in Part 5.A. Capital Budget Project Schedule of the 2018–19 Legislative Appropriation Request Detailed Instructions. Additionally, agencies deploying CAPPS during the 2016–17 biennium and identified in the Eighty-fourth Legislature, General Appropriations Act, 2016–17 Biennium, Article IX, Section 18.03, should submit a substrategy schedule detailing their deployment costs and efforts (see also Part 3.A. of the 2018–19 Legislative Appropriation Request Detailed Instructions).

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SPECIAL PROSECUTION UNIT As a unit of county government with sources of funding from the state, the Special Prosecution Unit (SPU) must provide a budget request that complies with the previously mentioned guidelines for LAR submission instructions for appellate courts. However, because SPU does not have access to the Automated Budget and Evaluation System of Texas (ABEST), word-processing and spreadsheet schedules that closely resemble the ABEST forms are sufficient submissions. A copy of this request must be sent to the LBB and the Office of the Governor. It is also necessary for SPU to coordinate closely with the Judiciary Section of the Comptroller’s Department, so that the Judiciary Section can incorporate relevant fiscal data into its LAR. Performance measure data relating to budget requests should be submitted by SPU and will not be included in the Judiciary Section’s LAR.

APPELLATE COURT AND JUDICIAL BRANCH AGENCY EMAILED FORMS Each court’s or agency’s budget request may contain the following word-processing forms, spreadsheet forms, and ABEST-generated reports (as necessary). Courts’ and agencies’ word-processing and spreadsheet forms should be emailed to the Office of the Governor’s address established for that purpose ([email protected]) and included in the searchable PDF submitted through the LBB Documents Submissions application (docs.lbb.state.tx.us).

Those forms should include:

• Capital Expenditure Detail (appellate courts and all judicial branch agencies without capital budget riders) – spreadsheet form;

• organization chart – word-processing form;

• Rider Revisions and Additions Request (only courts or agencies requesting changes) – word-processing form; and

• Current Biennium Onetime Expenditure Schedule – spreadsheet form.

Other supporting forms submitted in ABEST include the following:

• administrators statement;


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• Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Supporting Schedule;

• Estimated Revenue Collections Supporting Schedule (Office of Court Administration and Judiciary Section of the Comptroller’s Department);

• indirect administrative and support costs (Office of Court Administration only);

• direct administrative and support costs;

• Capital Budget Supporting Schedules (agencies with capital budget riders);

• Ten Percent Biennial Base Reductions Options Schedule;

• Federal Funds Supporting Schedule (Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals);

• Federal Funds Tracking Schedule (Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals); and

• estimated total of all funds outside the GAA.

The appellate courts and single-strategy judicial branch agencies may refer to the sample court budget request in this section. The sample includes supporting schedules required for the appellate courts, except for the Current Biennium Onetime Expenditure Schedule.

AGENCY REQUEST The Strategy Request is the initial starting point of the agency’s budget request. It should incorporate direct strategy costs (excluding requested rider appropriations) and capital costs allocated to a strategy. The Summaries of Request can be generated from ABEST. The Federal Funds, Capital Budget, and other schedules are supplemental, and they provide greater detail on amounts contained in the Strategy Request.

PRIORITIZATION OF MEASURES ABEST requires the agency to enter all of its performance measure definitions in the system. As part of that process, agencies will be authorized, but not required, to assign a priority (high, medium, or low) to each performance measure. This prioritization will assist in review of the budget request and in the selection of key measures for inclusion in the appropriations bill.

TEN PERCENT BIENNIAL BASE REDUCTION OPTIONS SCHEDULE Judicial agencies and the appellate courts are required to submit a 10 Percent Biennial Base Reduction Options Schedule within their 2018–19 LARs detailing how the agency or court would reduce the 2018–19 biennial baseline request by 10.0 percent in General Revenue Funds and General Revenue–Dedicated Funds. The LBB and Governor’s office will calculate the General Revenue Funds and General Revenue–Dedicated Funds 10.0 percent amount for the schedule upon approval of the 2016–17 biennial base reconciliation. The target amount will then be communicated to the court or agency and entered into ABEST.

The options are to be submitted in 5.0 percent increments in priority order, with a set of reduction items representing 5.0 percent of the baseline request, followed by another set of items representing an additional 5.0 percent, for a total of 10.0 percent. Agencies should submit reduction options that tie to programs identified in the 2016–17 biennial State Budget by Program (sbp.lbb.state.tx.us/). Courts and agencies are encouraged to review existing operations and offer targeted reductions in specific programs. Reduction options should also include estimates of any losses in revenue, including Federal Funds, as part of the agency’s or court’s impact statement within the schedule. Nonspecific, across-the-board reductions are discouraged, but they may be acceptable when the court’s or agency’s size or function limits the available options.

ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION Agencies will submit LARs for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 electronically to the LBB through ABEST. The LAR is submitted to the LBB electronically when agencies and courts change their status in ABEST to Complete. Instructions for entering budget data in ABEST may be found on the LBB website at www.lbb.state.tx.us/AgenciesPortal.aspx → Instructions → Legislative Appropriations Request → Preparing and Submitting Legislative Appropriation Requests in ABEST (June 2016).


4 JUNE 2016 LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD ID: 3061 — LAR INSTRUCTIONS FOR JUDICIARY

Other word-processing and spreadsheet forms must be emailed to the Governor’s office ([email protected]) and included in the searchable PDF submitted through the LBB Documents Submissions application (docs.lbb.state.tx.us). An LAR-to-PDF generator is available in ABEST, which enables the agency to select LAR reports from ABEST and assists the insertion of additional documents (PDF format only) to compile a complete PDF file. The generator can be helpful to compile bound LAR copies and to submit electronically to Document Submissions.

The LBB Document Submissions application is available at docs.lbb.state.tx.us. Agencies that have a valid user ID and password for ABEST can access the application. The Help tab on the login screen of Document Submissions provides additional instructions to complete your electronic submission.

If you do not have an ABEST user ID and password, you will need to request access by submitting a Logon Request Form at loginreqagy.lbb.state.tx.us. If needed, use the Contact Us tab within the LBB Document Submissions application to request support or assistance.

CERTIFICATION OF DUAL SUBMISSIONS The LAR is submitted electronically, both through ABEST and as a PDF document. The request submitted in ABEST is the official submission. A certification of the content of the dual submissions, and assurance that the ABEST submission and the PDF document are one and the same, shall be submitted as part of the PDF document. If there is a discrepancy between the ABEST submission and the PDF document, the ABEST submission will be presumed correct. The certification form is available on the LBB website at www.lbb.state.tx.us/AgenciesPortal.aspx → Instructions → Legislative Appropriations Request → Certification Form for Certification of Dual LAR Submission Template.

If an office is headed by an elected official, the first assistant may sign for the elected official.

REVISIONS TO SUBMITTED LAR If your agency needs to and has received permission to revise the completed 2018–19 LAR in ABEST, you will need to submit a searchable PDF version of the revised LAR through the Document Submissions application after completing any revisions made in ABEST. The revised PDF should also be sent to the Governor’s office.

BOUND PAPER COPIES Agencies will also submit bound printed copies of the LAR and any supplemental (that is, non-ABEST) information to the offices requiring copies of LARs. See page 15 of the 2018–19 Legislative Appropriation Request Detailed Instructions (June 2016) for instructions on assembly and distribution of bound paper copies. Agencies should submit two bound paper copies of the LAR and any supplemental information to both the LBB and Governor’s office.